The Time Travelers' Club: Chapter 59 – Flying Back Home

The next morning, they went to Macy's for some shopping and lunch, then it was time to get ready to leave.

Late Sunday afternoon, Uncle Matt saw them off at the train station.  Sam was ready to be home and plan his trip with Mrs. Steers to see Cleopatra. Grandpa Henry was waiting for them at the station.

Pulling up to the house, Sam noticed two things.  One, there were no lights on in Mrs. Steers' part of the house.   And second, someone was hiding in the park across the street.  He could see a dark figure moving between the bushes and trees, trying to avoid the streetlamps.  The stranger was watching them.   Sam turned, about to say something to his Mom, when he saw the figure vanish.

When they got upstairs, their apartment had been ransacked.  Sam's room was a mess. Someone had been searching it.  Emily called the police and, about ten minutes later, Officer O'Maley showed up.  Emily knew him as a patron of the library and his son was in the same class as Sam.

Two hours later, Mrs. Steers returned just as he was preparing to leave.

"Oh my, what's going on?"  Mrs. Steers set her grocery bags down on the porch steps.

"Someone broke into the upstairs apartment," said Officer O'Maley.  "Have you been gone long, Mrs. Steers?"

Mrs. Steers explained that she had been to the grocery.  Officer O'Maley checked her front and back doors, but there was no sign of forced entry.  Mrs. Steers' part of the house remained undisturbed. 

Officer O'Maley wrote up his report and left.

"Emily?" said Mrs. Steers, entering through the laundry room.

"Hello?"  Emily yelled from her bedroom.  "Mrs. Steers?"

"Is everything alright? Anything missing?"   Mrs. Steers stood in the laundry room doorway.   Sam hurried over to her.

"Nothing's missing, but they messed up my room.  Like they were looking for something."

Emily added that the door had not been forced open.  "Do any of the former tenants still have keys?"

"No," said Mrs. Steers.  "I've always changed the locks."

The cuckoo chimed nine.  Mrs. Steers said goodnight and went back to her part of the house.  Sam and Emily finished straightening up the overturned apartment.  Tomorrow, they would be back to their usual routine.

After Emily assured Sam that they were safe, he went to bed.  He lay there, not really scared, but thinking about who had been there and what were they looking for.

Hmmm...  I wonder if it was someone looking for one of the books.  It bet it was someone that Mrs. Steers and Rose were talking about the other day.

Sam rubbed his eyes and tried to think of any of the names he had heard.  He remembered the Doctor, but no one else.

Mrs. Steers knows.  I just know she does.  And I bet she won't tell.  She's full of too many secrets...  And she knows how to keep them.

Sam rolled over and went to sleep.